Seventh edition 40k causes problems for TOs.
There’s so much variety that a “straight out the book” approach is tricky. The
problem is managing people’s expectations. People are giving up their time and
money to attend an event, and they need to know what they’re letting themselves
in for. Is it a “competitive” ETC style cheese fest, or is it more like GW’s
Throne of Skulls events – a hobby weekend of organised play?

In discussing the rules pack for DM2 or main
objective was to make the event as inclusive as possible. We wanted DM2 to
appeal to both the hardened tournament player and the more casual player and
hobbyist. The $64,000 question is how?

Well inevitably we needed to introduce some
restrictions. The starting point was in army composition. Like most tournaments
we’ve gone for 2 sources – Primary and Secondary. The first is a CAD or other
codex detachment, and the 2nd either an allied detachment or
formation. The detail is all in the event pack.

The next question we looked at was whether to allow
Forge World. There is no doubt there are some very powerful (and arguably under
costed) Forge World models (e.g. Hornets). More particularly it allows in some
units that many players will know nothing about. On the other hand they are no
more unbalanced than other units in the game, and very few players know every
model’s rules these days anyway. More importantly however, a few play groups in
Scotland play regularly with Forge World rules and models, and we know they
enjoy doing so. We don’t want people deciding not to come to DM2 because they
cant use all their toys!

So we’ve suggested that people can take 0-1 Forge
World units. An alternative might be to place a points restriction on the FW
models people can bring. We’re thinking about that.

That of course has an impact on the inclusion of
super heavies and lords of war (and indeed Super Heavy Lords of War!). My
personal view is that super heavy lords of war have no place in “normal” games
of 40k. However, again, we recognised that people enjoy playing with super
heavy models, and decided to allow them, but introduce a points limit of
489pts. This will allow smaller super heavies, but exclude titans and the like.
It will also allow “Codex Lords of War” e.g. Dante in the BA Codex. What we’re
trying to do is strike a balance between allowing folks to paly with most of
their toys, but at the same time excluding armies that some might consider “no
fun to play” e.g. a Titan with a minimal HQ and troops.

Which brings me to a few other, perhaps more
controversial, restrictions.

Our primary concern here was to limit a player’s
ability to bring a list that might be considered by their opponent “no fun to
play”. Now, there is no doubt that this is the “slippery slope” towards full on
“comp”. The problem with introducing “comp” is the law of unintended
consequences – i.e. if you restrict one thing, you make way for something else
to become even more broken. So, when doing this we wanted to limit as few
things as possible. Our aim was to try and limit some aspects of the game that
most people would consider unbalanced, or to be more pejorative “broken”. We
decided to make the following changes

·Rather than invisibility being snap shot only, we
changed it so that units shooting the invisible unit are BS1 and WS1 in
assault. This is a common change in tournaments in the UK, effectively allowing
templates and blasts to hit Invisible units.

·Any re-rolled saves will only pass the re-roll on a
4+ - i.e. no re-roll able 2+ saves

·No come the apocalypse allies.

·Units which are come the apocalypse allies with
Demons, can not cast conjuration powers from the Demonology discipline.

I hope the first 2 are self explanatory – for most
people, un-killable death stars are just not fun to play against. I’m not
saying they’re unbeatable, nor am I saying they don’t present a challenge to
experienced players, who may well enjoy that challenge. All I’m saying is that
for the vast majority of people, it’s just no fun to have your army killed by
something you cant harm! Bluntly, I would restrict this particular aspect of
the game more severely, however rightly or wrongly it’s part of the game and we
took the view that, while some may want us to place more restrictions on these
rules, that would run the risk of putting others of. Again, a degree of balance
is what we’re trying a achieve.

As for come the apocalypse allies, personally I
don’t have no problem with them. But then again, I’m not really into the story
behind the game. However, we know that this level of alliance does annoy some,
and makes for some very odd armies. As we want to try and attract everybody to
the event, prohibiting Come the Apocalypse Allies was a “nod” to the fluff
player or narrative gamer.

The final bullet point is one I feel quite strongly
about – bluntly I would prohibit all summoning. IMHO it is fundamentally
unfair, that one player can increase the number of points they have on the
table beyond what the other player has. I know it’s random, and I’ve heard all
the arguments about how creating a “summoning factory” restricts the rest of
your army etc. etc. Again, I’m not saying its unbeatable, all I’m saying is
that it’s not fun for the person playing against it.

However, again we need to accept that, rightly or
wrongly (wrongly IMHO) it is a part of the game, and to ban it completely would
annoy as many people as it would please. So we decided to restrict summoning so
that only Chaos Demons and Chaos Marines can summon demons. Of course the most
significant effect of this restriction is to stop Eldar Armies summoning
demons, and that is quite deliberate. There is no doubt that Eldar are one of
the most powerful factions at the moment, and we wanted to try and reign that
back a little. This seemed like a good way to do it.

And with our desire to encourage everybody to attend,
even I can see how “offensive” it is to some when Farseers summon Demonetts!

We know these restrictions aren’t perfect. I know
we didn’t comp Wave Serpents, nor did we prohibit Early Warning Overrides, or
restrict Marker Lights. The problem of course is “where do you stop”?
What we’ve tried to do is limit the worse excesses, without rewriting the rules
entirely.

Finally, we’ve also decided to introduce a “best
over all” award, called “Warmaster”. This will be the top prize, with the
winner having the highest score combining appearance, sportsmanship and battle
points, but with a twist – battle points for Warmaster will be worked out with
reference to how well you do against other players using your faction, similar
to how it’s done at Throne of Skulls in the UK. More details on this to come.

1 comment:

While I am moving away from 40k at the moment, this sounds like a good set of rules, that allows everyone to use most of their toys, but limits some of the more challenging and overpowered factors in the game.